The 100 Best FREE VST Plugins of All Time (26 – 50)

⇦ Click here for Part 1 (1 – 25)

---

---

26. Auburn Couture – Free

Couture can be best described as a transient shaper and saturation unit that gives you exquisite control over your dynamics, and particularly attacks. This plugin boasts full volume independence.

Raw Efficiency. Increase or decrease dynamics. Get a usable result, now.

Fully Volume-independent. Keep the freedom to change input gain when needed. Including the Saturation stage.

Laser-sharp. Couture’s 2-bands, half-spectral, RMS, program-dependent detector finds each and every transient. No internal thresholds.

Couture is unusually versatile:

• Make individual drum tracks a lot more dynamic and punchy
• Remove the “click” out of a kick drum sample
• Make a whole bus more or less dynamic in a single click
• Give glue to a mix with light compression and saturation
• Use a subtle saturation that preserve dynamics
• Deess the very start of notes for vocals
• Give life to inane lead synths

---

27. Full Bucket FB-3300

The FB-3300 is a free software instrument that simulates the KORG PS-3300 Polyphonic Synthesizer from all the way back in 1977.

The interface seems incredibly overwhelming, with a seemingly endless amount of controls and functions, so there’s definitely a learning curve involved with this VST plugin.

The main features include: 3 independent polyphonic synthesizer blocks, band-limited oscillators and classic two-pole lowpass filters.

---

28. FuzzPlus 3

FuzzPlus 3 is a great sounding, crunchy distortion VST plugin with an incredibly simple and easy to use interface.

It features the much-loved vintage fuzz pedal model, plus an excellent filter function, self-feedback, and a modern procedural user interface.

FuzzPlus3 is a no-brainer addition to any producer’s toolset.

This plugin is no longer available and has been replaced with RoughRider 3.

---

29. The 60s Rogers Pop Kit Single Hits Pack

This is another fantastic free drum VST, which emulates a very classy, 60s kit.

Recorded on a beautiful, vintage Rogers kit from the era and mic’d up in a dry sounding booth, these samples will help add a stunning, authentic 60s vibe to your tracks.

The pack comes with 10 patches for the various samplers and includes three velocities of each articulation.

PLEASE NOTE: This product is no longer available, try checking out Steven Slate’s SSD 5.5.

---

30. AudioSpillage MiniSpillage

MiniSpillage is a free professional-sounding drum synthesizer plugin capable of creating and finetuning a wide variety of drum and percussive sounds.

We’ve spent a lot of time playing around with this plugin, and some of the sounds you can make are truly incredible. It’s ease of use and flexibility make it a must-have for both beginner and advanced producers.

---

31. TAL Reverb 4

This is another very simple, yet powerful reverb plugin from TAL. This is the perfect VST plugin for producers looking for a more vintage, 80s reverb sound.

The interface is sleek and effective, and is capable of creating a range of diffuse reverb effects, from spacious, breathy tails to short, delayed effects.

A no-brainer for producers looking to expand their reverb plugin collection.

---

32. OB-Xd

The OB-Xd is based on the classic hardware: Oberheim OB-X. This plugin does a great job in sounding as good and as rich as the original piece of gear.

It implements micro random detuning which is a big part of that analog polyphonic sound.

However, it was not designed as a self-contained completely independent soft-synth. It needs to be contained within a VST framework where things like transposition, automation, layering, arpeggiation, etc., are available.

---

33. Wollo Drone

Wollo Drone is a very underrated, free VST plugin. Developed by Erik Wollo, it combines FM style sounds with a wave player.

It has 32 voice polyphony and 2 high quality oscillators (carrier and modulator) in each voice.

The presets are also very interesting and include some cool, creative space pads and FX.

---

34. LePou LeCab 2.0

LeCab2 is an extremely high quality, free cabinet (guitar or bass) impulse loader.

It can hold up to 6 separate IR slots which can then be tweaked independently using phase, volume, delay and pan knobs.

It also gives you the possibility to link 2 slots together, while keeping other controls independent.

---

35. Tunefish 4

Tunefish is an excellent, compact virtual analog synthesizer. The synth code has a compressed design, so it’s not heavy on the CPU, but it still produces an audio quality that competes with commercial synthesizers.

The key features are (from the Tunefish website):

• It’s implemented as a VST instrument
• It uses a spline based oscillator that can by configured very dynamically.
• Additionally to normal sine, sawtooth, triangle and pulse waveforms, it can do anything that is possible with 6 points and step/linear/spline interpolation.
• The Noise generator can produce any frequency of noise with any bandwidth
• Lowpass, Highpass, Bandpass and Notch filters are available
• 2 ADSRs and 2 LFOs that can be linked to pretty much any important knob using a modulation matrix
• Supported effects are Flanger, Chorus, Distortion, Delay, Reverb, EQ and Formant
• The effects stack allows for any permutation of up to 10 effects

This is a huge, eclectic mix of features for a free product.

---

36. Steinberg Model E

Steinberg Model E is, in every sense of the word, a VST classic. This plugin was one of the first commercially available VST instruments on the market.

Now Steinberg have re-released it, for free.

The download comes bundles within the VST Classics Vol 1 pack, which also contains the fantastic VB-1 virtual bass guitar as an extra treat.

---

37. Blue Cat’s Phaser

For lovers of that vintage, old-school phaser effect, Blue Cat have released this phaser VST plugin, modelled after vintage analog phaser circuits.

You can choose up to 32 phasing stages, which would probably be overkill, but the option is there.

---

38. Blue Cat’s Flanger

Another vintage-style effect that is almost synonymous with the 60s and 70s, is the flanger effect. “Flange” can be added to any live or synthesized sound, giving it a warped, spacious feel. This free VST plugin is excellent for re-creating this iconic sound.

Despite its incredibly simple interface, Blue Cat’s Flanger is surprisingly versatile, and can create harsh, metallic sounds or smooth and soft filtering effects.

---

39. Blue Cat’s Chorus

Originally, the Chorus effect was designed to simulate multiple voices, just as if multiple people were performing the same notes together, but with a processed variable delay between them.

From a light ensemble to a deep modulation chorus effect, Blue Cat’s Chorus can create a large range of chorus effects, for free. This plug-in also enables you to drastically alter the original sound and create deep pitch-modulation or crazy ‘bubbling’ effects.

---

40. Melda MUtility

MUtility is a all-encompassing plugin focusing on the more advanced / scientific side of audio engineering.

MUtility provides many of the fundamental functions and effects considered essential to any audio engineer, as well as a number of advanced functions.

This includes volume, stereo swapping, delay, panorama, RMS and envelope, phase inversion, a DC blocker, mathematical functions, an expression evaluator and a mono-stereo decoder / encoder.

---

41. iZotope Vocal Doubler

iZotope Vocal Doubler is a great free VST plugin created to enhance your vocal samples and performances with an authentic-sounding doubling effect, adding richness and depth.

Watch the video below to see this VST plugin in action.

---

42. Eareckon FR-COMP 87

This plugin comes as part of a free bundle of cool plugins called the Free87 series.

Like most of the VST plugins on this list, this bundle contains free versions of the paid product. Therefore some of the controls of the paid version are of course missing.

The bundle contains individual compression, equalizer, gate and limiter plugins, which are extremely simple and easy to use.

---

43. Melda MAutoPitch

MAutoPitch is a simple but fantastic sounding automatic pitch correction plugin designed primarily for vocals, but also can be applied to other monophonic instruments.

This VST plugin provides pitch correction from slight automatic pitch fine-tuning to the modern vocal “autotune” effect.

MAutoPitch also provides creative features such as formant and stereo-expansion. It is fast, easy to use and of course – free!

---

44. Musical Entropy Spaceship Delay

Spaceship Delay from Musical Entropy is a great delay effect that can be used to create classic, modern and vintage delays.

It can be used as a standard delay for processing vocals, adding some depth to drums, guitars, synth sounds, but also as a more creative effect, thanks to the attack control. It can even be used as a looper thanks to the freeze switch and the surprising long maximum delay sizes.

---

45. TAL Vocoder

TAL-Vocoder is a vintage-sounding Vocoder plugin with 11 bands that emulate the sound of iconic Vocoders from the early 80’s.

Some more features of the product are… (from the product website):

• Internal carrier synth (pulse, saw, sub osc, noise, mono, poly, portamento, sync mode, tune).
• Possibility to route an external carrier signal.
• Harmonic control (adds more harmonics to any carrier signal)
• “Ess” enhancer for a clean understandable voice, also with a carrier that hasn’t much high frequencies.
• Clip LED, glows if the input signal will be clipped.
• Panic button stops hanging notes within the synth.
• Documentation shows different routing possibilities.
• Low CPU usage.
• Side-Chain input.

---

46. Teragon Kick Maker

KickMaker is a free VST plugin designed specifically to create original kick drum sounds. It has four independent oscillators, each with its own ADSR curve, allowing you to create and tweak your own kick drums completely from scratch.

This is a perfect VST plugin for beginners looking to learn and understand more about sound design.

---

47. Klanghelm MJUC Jr.

Klanghlem’s “MJUC Jr.” is the freeware version of their compression plugin – MJUC.

This simplistic VST plugin can produce very natural-sounding compression that is reminiscent of the early days of audio compression, and more modern, heavier compression effects.

---

48. TDR Slick EQ

This free equalizer VST plugin has an intuitive, yet flexible interface great for finetuning the equalization of your sounds.

The five output stages: “Linear”, “Silky”, “Mellow”, “Deep” and “Toasted” are great to instantly apply if you’re in need of immediate inspiration.

---

49. Wave Arts Tube Saturator Vintage

Tube Saturator is a very popular, accurate tube-amp plugin.

It is very clear while using this plugin that it aims to replicate the analog circuit as accurately as possible, and it definitely shows.

This plugin can be used to add some analog-sounding warmth and depth to your sounds, or crank up the drive for some crunchy distortion effects.

---

50. Algae Software Tune it!

Tune It! is an incredibly helpful piece of software that allows musicians to accurately and effectively tune their instruments.

It can also be used to monitor the real-time pitch during live performance.

This free VST plugin is based on an original and highly accurate pitch detection algorithm, and can be used to tune most instruments, including guitar, piano, flute, saxophone and more.

---

Honorable Mention: Melda MFreeformPhase

MFreeformPhase is a powerful utility plugin geared more towards advanced production and engineering processes.

This free VST plugin lets you adjust the phase of individual frequencies however you like and can therefore be highly effective for complex, advanced mixing situations.

---

Click here for part 3 (51 – 75) ⇨

---

---